Sure, the price of oil is part of the problem. But it’s not the only problem. And Greg Abbott and I are going to show you what I mean by that.

Texas Governor, Republican Greg Abbott tweeted: "Despite downturn in oil, Texas still added more than 166,000 jobs last year. More new jobs than the Waco population."

Now how did this happen? How did Texas create more jobs than Alberta shed last year, when we are both jurisdictions subject to the ebbs and flows of the energy markets? How are they outperforming us so much and so well?

I looked into all the ways Texas is doing things better than we are here in Alberta. From stable royalties, low tax rates, and embracing oil exports as a way to spur economic growth, Texas has it all figured out.

Texas is doing the opposite of everything Alberta is doing. And it's working. The job numbers prove it.

Comments

Sheila’s use of Texas is more than about geography . It is about extremes in gov’t interference with the business of oil and really about all business interference. Our gov’ts have interfered with all aspects of our lives. I used to run an import export business with 4 retail stores. I was fortunate that the bulk of my business was in the far east and Mexico so I had huge margins to work with.
Canadians wonder why we pay more for goods here than the US does and it is quite simple. Gov’t puts trade tariffs on imports which makes the price at retail higher as well as driving up Labour costs due to the protected goods which makes goods produced here higher often than in the US.
Goods from Mexico I could get up to 10 times the original cost or 5 times the landed cost.

I’ve been to Texas over 100 times and saw the tough times there. Things turned around as they always do. I can remember around Corpus Christi when motels shut their upper floors and gave beer away for about 4 hours a day to get customers. Their pile industry didn’t give up on Texas because their gov’t was pro industry and oil. Alberta’s gov’t is driving the oil guys out of Alberta as long as the NDP are there. This isn’t rocket science. The oil industry is able to adjust to oil prices knowing they will come back up.

I agree that Sask is a better comparison, with its own resource regime of natural gas and potash, and in this case Brad has ran Sask very well, better than the corrupt Tories of Alberta, and miles better than the current regime.

As for a US comparison the Dakotas are a bit closer. They are suffering. Relatively Alberta and the Dakotas are youngsters in the oil world. Texas has been building its industry for many decades longer. The population is massive, that it is basically the size of Canada or small European nations in its own right.

Part of the problem was a government, under the Tories and now, basing their budget on $100 oil assumptions.

If you want to draw a compare and contrast scenario, I would say that Saskatchewan would be more suitable than Texas. Saskatchewan has more in common with Alberta, such as having the same federal government to report to, being landlocked, using the same currency, and being in the same boat when it comes to pipelines.

Notley is trying to prove that she is in favour of the energy east pipeline and refined oil within Canada, while respecting environmental issues. When she is in Ontario for example, she is actually promoting and defending the oil industry to the rest of Canada. This is all bullshit of course. Just after her visit with Couillard in Quebec city last fall, all of a sudden Couillard was concerned about the beluga whales. At the same time Couillard was saying this Notely was in Ontario talking to Wynne about how to build wind/solar farms. Notley will set up a new Royalty Tax sliding scale scheme that will hammer the oil industry and will promote it as more fair and competitive. When the pipeline issue is finally killed by Trudeau most of the heat and light will be on Coderre, and Couillard will take a little of that. Notley will come out and say that she tried but it was out of her control. Yeah Right.

You do realize that Texas is a technology and aerospace center? Plus all the refineries and chemical plants. A refinery with low oil prices is a gold mine; the margin on finished products is even larger.

Andrew, with oil so low, I wonder why anyone would continue to explore, if even maintain current production is hostile regimes? Why bother any more with Nigeria? Why deal with the socialist duplicitous governments in Bolivia and Brazil? Why bother with the corrupt Chinese regime?

Mannie. ….you know nothing of Alberta, and by your own admission, you could care less.
D J Oates. Good points but please don’t confuse mannie with facts. He struggles with the facts, as do all leftist progressive fucktards.

I hear you Deborah , two of my daughters will graduate one this year one in 2018 and will go onto University / College . What a terrible feeling that gives me in the pit of my stomach. Just imagine the maze they will have to work their way through. They will get a double down of crazy coming at them since we live in Alberta land of the new guidelines for best practice and all other idiotic things liberal /NDP governments will force upon them. I am very nervous !

For those of you who continually keep saying that it is only the price of oil that is causing this economic melt down, then here are some actual facts, real data, that prove otherwise.

Ralph Klein not only pull Alberta out of debt and left us in the black, but he left two government accounts, the Heritage Trust Fund and the Sustainability Fund totaling about 13 Billion. But he also did this all the while the price of oil per barrel averaged $34.76 (converted to todays’ dollar value) and even unemployment rate went down during his tenure.

If Ralph can do it, then it proves the NDP are the largest contributing factor to the Alberta economic meltdown.

Mike Piesse – the liberals only use failed ideology, it gets them the most bang for our bucks. They don’t want the public to be able to provide for themselves and their families, just like they don’t want the natives to prosper. They want to keep us down, and desperate, so that they can continue to milk support for their party and their elite friends. They want us to all lose our jobs, and they want to steal our kids earlier than kindergarten, so that they can totally brainwash them into being the Marxist idiots that the liberals are.

Actually, Michael Mann, they have a very similar economy to Alberta — oil, gas, agriculture. Most of the job growth was in oil and gas extraction and supporting industries, and offset the losses in tech and manufacturing, which lost about 40,000 jobs. What most people don’t realize is large resource companies look at supercylces when it comes to resource extraction; the oil price today does not necessarily reflect oil prices 5 years from now. Contango prices are approximately $8 more than current crude basket price (USD).

Ontario used to be a manufacturing powerhouse, but now the services industry makes up 77% of it’s GDP, with only ~13% in manufacturing. That’s 90% of it’s economy in “1 or 2 baskets”—that’s in stark contrast to Alberta who are actually much more diversified. Only 25% of it’s economy is directly oil and gas related, with 7% in manufacturing, 11% in construction (compared to 5% in Ontario), 6% in transportation and utilities (compared to 2% in Ontario), 2% in agriculture (1% in Ontario) the rest in service industries (~49%). We know service industries are dependent on the production of primary goods (i.e. manufacturing, mining, forestry, agriculture). Stats from Ontarios’ and Alberta’s respective websites, to 2014 and 2013 respectively.

and to further Sheila and Michael’s point, even the liberal Andrew Coyne pointed out, in his “Trudeau’s Classless Remark in Davos” article, under Prime Minister Stephen Harper’s governance Canada’s energy component went from 10% to 9% of our GDP, (i.e. more baskets with different stuff) while the strength of our economy continued to be envied by all.

Interestingly enough, Michael proves my point. Limiting taxation and regulation caused an economy like Texas to diversify. Businesses migrate to less regulated, less taxed jurisdictions naturally. And it’s easier to start a business somewhere like Texas. The opposite is happening in Alberta.

I tried having this very discussion yesterday with a far left individual. They wouldn’t even try to understand that the 2 worse possible governments are adding to the grief of Alberta and Canada. “It’s all the world economics and both Notley and Trudeau are helping and changing us for the better”. Brainwashed? Head stuck in the sand thinking everything is sunshine lollipops and rainbows. It was really sad and frightening to think people can be actual believe in them.